Slavery is defined as the state of a person who is a chattel of another1. When must people hear this term they think about African Americans struggle in early American history. They conjure up visions of the American Civil War and the iconic image of the great emancipator himself, President Abraham Lincoln. The truth to be told though, slavery in United States history predates those events and figures. It actually started before the United States was even founded. Slavery in the United States actually was rooted in Colonial North America. As different nations raced to settle North America they used the cheapest labor to progress their cause economically. But, the biggest shock of all to most people is that not all slaves where African American. The African American slave trade was actually the last trade of slaves to be introduced to the Americas. Most people do not know that white Europeans where slaves in the Colonial Colonies and the hardships that they endured. The sources of racial thought in Colonial America pertaining to slave trade worked both directions with white merchandise as well as black.2

There was tobacco boom that appeared in the 1630s and was credited with saving the colony of Virginia. With this economic boom new plantations appeared and demand for labor intensiﬁed.3 The ruling Governors of the colonies needed to find ways to maintain this economic boom that was transpiring. And one way to do so was to find cheap labors for the plantation owners. It was no coincident that it was at this time white slavery started to come to the American Colonies from Scotland. A law was passed the allowed the British Government to people that they deemed vagrant to the American Colonies. It may be lawful for two or more justices of the peace within any county, city or town, corporate belonging to the commonwealth to from time to time by warrant cause to be apprehended, seized...

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...Journal Article Review
White Servitude and the Growth of Black Slavery in ColonialAmerica
Dr. West
History 7A
Martin Valdez
January 24, 2011
From “The Journal of Economical History”, Vol. 41, No. 1, author David W. Galenson provides a nine-page article published in March 1981 entitled “White Servitude and the Growth of Black Slavery” which I thoroughly read and will present my own analysis.
In a unique approach author David Galenson examines the transition of servants to slaves during the 17th and 18th century of British America. He successfully covers the importance of slavery and the reason for its high demand. Galenson takes into consideration the demographic conditions and its differences throughout the West Indies, the Chesapeake colonies, Virginia and Maryland, and South Carolina. He also provides his own analysis, which is the belief that the growth of slavery may have been due to the decisions of planters. Despite our past and its complete disregard to the social consequences of its actions David Galenson attempts to piece together the puzzle and make sense of it all.
Slavery served many purposes aside from being a foundation in constructing America’s agricultural staple. For many it meant a fresh start and others freedom however, they accepted the fact their debt would be paid in servitude sometimes...

...﻿Slavery took place in ColonialAmerica in a complicated way. Around 1960 historians describe slavery in certain in a way, which leads them to think that there is differences between Whites and Blacks when it comes to intelligence, civilization, morality or physical capacity. All of the sudden White starting to think they should be the leader of people from Africa. They think that people from Africa should be the one doing all the hard work. Then the Civil right movement began in the 20th century, which lead historians to rethink about race and also, that African are just as smart and capable of doing the things that White people are capable of doing. Slavery then became racial slowly in colonialAmerica, which means slavery were force labor and was not dealt with race. The thing is not all forced laborers were black and to be black did not mean they were enslaved. Most of the Africans in America were enslaved. From early moments in the history of slave traders came to Jamestown around 1690 and in Massachusetts by 1630. Slavery began to grow slowly from east to west until after the American Revolution, slavery was not well know in the south at this time. Many of the men In Jamestown was indentured servants they were brought to America to work without pay under a rich...

...﻿Slavery in ColonialAmerica
Many may ask, “Was slavery in ColonialAmerica purely based on race, class, economics, or all of these things. Well in the Articles written by Degler and Morgan it explains that slavery could have been based on both race and class. Degler believed that slavery was mostly about race. Morgan, on the other hand believed that slavery was more about class. Well, in the articles both Degler and Morgan try to explain why they believed slavery was based on race or class.
Degler believed that slavery was based upon racism. He believed that racism came way before slavery. According to Degler the status of Africans in seventeenth century didn’t switch from indentured servants to chattel slaves until 1660. He believed that the status was switched because they didn’t have to free the slaves. Also, Degler points out that the way Virginians treated the Indians was due to racism. Degler also explains how African slaves were more valuable than the others. Also in this article he explains how they were punished differently from other slaves.
Morgan believed that slavery was based on the economic class of the slaves or servants. According to Morgan class antagonism had a lot to do with the rise of the institution of African American chattel slavery in...

...This essay written by Jon Butler explains the evolution of slavery, including the Africans' experiences in America, and the developing of a sense of community among these people.
The author mentions that in 1680 slavery was not very common in English colonies, later around 1700 this would change. One of the possible causes of it was the decrease of indentured servants in the colonies of Chesapeake and the Carolinas, in which the labor force was in high demand at that time. Captive Africans became easy to obtain due to the slave trading by merchants and ship owners in European countries. Europeans could purchase captives in African wars that they could later send as laborers to America.
Also, it is mention that some of the reasons why slavery and not indenture servitude became more profitable for the colonist were the lifetime services offered by Africans, besides the status they conveyed to their owners. Slavery became prominent especially in southern colonies, and slaves soon outnumbered the population of the colonies.
The great majority of Africans did not survive the sea journey across the Atlantic. Once in America, the life expectancy of who survived was limited to five years due to lack of resistance to European and American diseases, strenuous work, and brutality of the servants.
However, Africans' experiences in America helped to create a...

...important influences on ColonialAmerica: religion and slavery. After reviewing the Reading & Study materials, watching the videos, and working with the Slave Trade Database, how has your thinking changed regarding these aspects of history? Did your search through the Slave Trade Database change your thinking about this aspect of history?
Being fully aware of how the Slave Trade was established was not surprising and after searching through the Slave Trade Database did not change my thinking about the aspect of history. Slave trading was a devastating time in history. Africans were not the only culture sought out for slavery, but it was less expensive to transport them. Most North Americans and Western Europeans may think that slavery existed in the South before the eighteen hundreds, but slavery existed at the beginning of history and has taken many forms over the past six thousand years. When we look back at the lives of slaves throughout history, we find that the core characteristics of slavery are the same. Slavery means the loss of free will, it means that violence will be used to maintain control over the slave, and that the slave will be exploited normally in some sort of economic activity. Nearly every culture and historical period has known slavery, and it has been “collected” differently at each time and place. There have been...

...Laura Gilliar
History 151.15
Professor Burrows
March 3, 2013
Slavery in British North America
Slave ownership was a common practice in the British colonies in North America. Slaves were owned in the Chesapeake as well as New England though the nature in which the slaves were used was very different. The reason that slave ownership became common was the patriarchy. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the idea of patriarchy was practiced in the colonies, especially the south. This led to a desire to be able to provide for yourself wile being able to command your family and the people that you owned. This created a world where slaves were a staple in the households of British North American colonies through the seventieth and eighteenth centuries.
Patriarchy is the idea of a male oriented society where women, children, lower-class men and slaves were below the elite upper class of white men. On of the ideas behind patriarchy is that the man is meant to have absolute control over anyone that is in a lower social class. Slaves seemed to have a harder time in these relationships since slaves were property not people. (Brown). A natural social hierarchy was the goal; a lawyer in Virginia said, “Societies of men could not subsist unless there were a subordination of one to another…. That in this subordination the department of slaves must be filled by some, or there would be a defect in the scale...

...Origins in the Americas
10/13/13
APUSH
Alex Peasley
1 In 1609-1610 Jamestown, Virginia experienced a great famine. After this famine the settlers experimented to find a crop that would help them survive. Tobacco was the crop Jamestown found to help them survive.* Jamestown was able to grow fields and fields of tobacco, but there was not enough people to work the fields. At first, the men of the English working class supplied the labors for the fields. Indentured servants were also brought in to work the fields. But such workers were susceptible to disease and often proved unreliable as they could always choose to leave work behind and return to their people.* In 1619 Jamestown didn't have enough white people to work the land so they bought about 20 African workers.
"For the English people in the New World there was really three labor options. One is to transport people from England to the New World. Another is to employ or exploit the indigenous labor...And the third is to bring people in from Africa."* In 1619 , when Africans were first brought into Britain's North America they were to be treated as indentured servants. Regardless of color all servants were supposed to be granted freedom after so many years of labor. In 1640 John Punch tried to runaway and his punishment was servitude for life. Punch was the first documented slave for life.
Gradually,...

...Slavery was a practice in many countries in the 17th and 18th centuries, but its effects in human history was unique to the United States. Many factors played a part in the existence of slavery in colonialAmerica; the most noticeable was the effect that it had on the personal and financial growth of the people and the nation. Capitalism, individualism and racism were the utmost noticeable factors during this most controversial period in American history. Other factors, although less discussed throughout history, also contributed to the economic rise of early American economy, such as, plantationism and urbanization. Individually, these factors led to an enormous economic growth for the early American colonies, but collectively, it left a social gap that we are still trying to bridge today.
Capitalism has always been a double edge sword for the United States. It began as the driving force in pushing along economic growth, but it came at the price of the African society. It was implied, and enforced, that Africans were of a lesser class through the means in which they were "used" by the slave owners to promote their wealth and stature. The larger their plantation, the wealthier and more successful people were seen. But in order to do this, the plantation owners needed workers, but if they had to pay workers reasonable wages, they could not yield a profit. Also, in the South, it was hard, rough work in the hot sun...